"Depression and epilepsy: a shared pathophysiology", 2022

[pattismith]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8863389/

Comorbidity of Epilepsy and Depression: Associated Pathophysiology and Management​

Epilepsy of the temporal lobe (also known as temporal lobe epilepsy, or TLE) is a useful biological model for understanding the anatomical similarities between depression and epilepsy.

TLE and clinical depression may be linked to an increase in hippocampus interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) signaling as suggested by Mazarati et al. that increased IL-1B causes dysregulation in the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical axis (HPA) [21,22].

This dysregulation impaired raphe-hippocampal serotonergic transmission and led to depressive symptoms.

Additionally, the purpose of this study by Mazarati was to determine if pharmacological inhibition of the hippocampus interleukin-1 receptor had antidepressant effects in an animal model of TLE and depression that occurred in Wistar rats following pilocarpine status epilepticus (SE) [21].

Bilateral intrahippocampal infusions of human recombinant Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) for two weeks alleviated all depression symptoms in naive rats without changing spontaneous seizure frequency or normal parameters.

These findings link hippocampus IL-1beta in epilepsy-associated depression and support the use of IL-1beta antagonists in TLE treatment [21]........

 

[lenora]

Hello......I have two separate types of epilepsy and have different meds for each. I should mention that I'm going on 77 yrs. of age and female.

It's known in medical circles that apparently we become more prone to seizures as we age. I was fortunate in that both of my types of epilepsy were witnessed by doctors in the ER. I can't confirm that the seizures preceded Autoimmune Encephalitis (which I also had about the same, but I don't want to return to that world. Nothing was really known about it say 4 years ago, a lot more today.....but nothing really concrete.

Am I depressed? No, I wouldn't say so.....and I do know what a bad bout of depression is all about. I'm on Lexapro and I'm sure that helps stave it off. Really, it's just one thing after the other since I turned 70 - but the two types of epilepsies did have me wondering. I'd had blackouts, broken bones....things of that nature.

I haven't driven since I was diagnosed and even sold my car. We live in a city, so Uber helps. Not that I go out to speak of.

Interestingly enough approximately 45 years or more ago, I was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor. It did go away on its own with use of the drug Bromocriptine. I've not been troubled for years.

Thanks for the info, Patti. Yours, Lenora